HEADLINE: SHORT CUTS / SOUND;
Aimee Mann deals with lost love through new songs

BYLINE: By Steve Morse, Globe Staff

BODY:
Three years ago, singers Aimee Mann and Jules Shear were
the talk of the MTV Video Awards. They sat together at ceremonies in Radio
City Music Hall, smiling and giggling as though in the clutches of first
love. Their embraces were flashed on a screen - and they easily stole the
show.

But the romance didn't last. Mann, who fronts Boston's 'Til Tuesday,
was back on her own a year later. She took some time off, then poured her
dashed dreams into the new 'Til Tuesday album, "Everything's Different
Now," which is the most confessional album since Bruce Springsteen's
"Tunnel of Love."

"There are some songs that are not strictly about him," Mann
says, alluding to Shear. "But I guess they refer to emotions that can
be traced back to him."

For anyone who thought 'Til Tuesday was a somewhat remote band based
on their first two albums, then one listen to the new LP will change your
mind. It is laden with heartrending lyrics in which Mann, who also writes
one song with Elvis Costello, tries to make sense of the breakup and move
on.

"It was a rough situation. When it was roughest, I didn't write
at all - and that contributed to this record taking so long," Mann
says in a recent interview before a club tour that hits the Rat in Kenmore
Square this Saturday and Sunday.

"It was a really amazing relationship. I thought it was very healthy
to stay together, but Jules just couldn't make up his mind," says Mann.
Hence the LP's first single, "Believed You Were Lucky," which
starts: "So I guess I'll give it up/Yeah I guess I will/What's the
use in pushing/When it's all uphill."

Other songs, most of them in 'Til Tuesday's airy soft-rock style, heighten
the mood: "Rip in Heaven," "Long Gone (Buddy)" and the
very specific "J for Jules," where Mann laments, "You know
I'll miss you."

The latter was one of the first tunes penned after the breakup. "I
went to Los Angeles to stay with a friend. He was this older guy and very
fatherly. He took me around to restaurants and was very nice. He had an
old Martin guitar and I played four chords on it and immediately broke down
crying. Those are the chords on 'J for Jules.' When I later sat down to
write it, it just came out. It was like writing a letter to somebody. It
was already in the air."

Ironically, the title track "Everything's Different Now" is
written by Shear, who has enjoyed recent success with his band Reckless
Sleepers. The song was written before the breakup, but appears to foreshadow
it.

"I still talk to Jules once in a while," says Mann. "We
have great conversations, but obviously they scare him off a bit. And yes,
it made him a little uncomfortable to have his name on a song, but he's
not in a position to complain."

One confidant during the breakup was Elvis Costello, who talked to Mann
well into the night after his show at Harvard University last year. "He
was a big help to me. He said, 'Love him as long as you can - and as much
as you can.' "

Mann has endured other changes, too. Her band retains drummer Michael
Hausman, but gone are guitarist Robert Holmes (now part of Boston's Ultra
Blue) and pianist Joey Pesca (now with Still Life). The new musicians are
pianist Michael Montes, guitarist Clayton Scobel and acoustic guitarist
Jon Brion, who is also her new boyfriend. "He's been great," Mann
says. "He's helped me feel strong and happy again."